Training

As well as responding to threats to journalists and media workers, the MFRR seeks to prevent future attacks on media and press freedom by offering a range of capacity-building and training courses to support journalists and offer them ways to protect themselves against threats before they happen.

Organised by EFJ, the MFRR will deliver a training of trainers safety course for journalists and representatives of media organisations, such as editors and training officers to ensure that best practice for protecting journalists and media workers is shared and understood as widely as possible. Information about this course will be posted here, on the ECPMF website, as well as social media platforms. 

As well as courses organised by the MFRR, the project will offer a flexible training fund to allow for training as a rapid response if any unexpected safety issues arise at national levels. Money will be shared to local/national partners to implement training courses as part of the project.

Online Training of Trainers: Risk Assessment for Journalists

ABOUT THE COURSE

The safety of journalists have become ever more important in recent years with an increasing number of journalists facing threats, harassment and injuries in relations to their daily work. While some threats require a broader political and cultural change among multi-stakeholders, others can be mitigated by individuals and organisational level by journalists and media organisations.

With this in mind, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) as part of the Media Freedom Rapid Response (MFRR) has developed the course to address individual journalists with the aims to enhance their personal capacities in making aware of operational media associated risks and provide them with practical tools and operational media field experience to mitigate those risks. 

The risk assessment tool can be applied by journalists, including freelance journalists, in any situation such as covering demonstrations, assignment / field work or conducting investigative reporting, etc. Following the course, journalists will learn about operational media associated risks, how to assess risk using our tools and how to apply counter measures to risks.

The course will be hosted by Thomson Foundation. It is part of the MFRR project co-funded by the European Commission.

The course and materials will be in English only.

SUMMARY OF THE COURSE

  1. Risk platform assessment
  2. Media Platform Road Map
  3. Methods of Monitoring and Assessing Risk
  4. Defining risk
  5. Risk Matrix
  6. Components of a Risk assessment
  7. Communications Planning
  8. Contingency Planning
  9. Best practices for filling risk assessments
  10. Final assessment and test

DURATION

The course will last for a consecutive 8-week period with a two-hour live session each week. Online support and coaching will be provided after the live sections. Participants can gain access to a tailor-made video tutoring and a safety handbook with safety tips and advice. The course materials will also be available.

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

This course is designed to train highly committed journalists or journalists’ representatives who can then become trainers to pass on knowledge and expertise gained to fellow journalists in their newsrooms or workplaces. They need to demonstrate a real commitment and certain level of knowledge on safety and risk assessment. They will have to speak good English.

CONDITIONS

The course is free of charge. Participants must be from EU or candidate countries. They are required to attend all the courses in order to receive the certificate of completion. Exceptions may be granted if valid reasons were provided in advance. A limited number of spaces for the live sections is available. A pre-selection test will be carried out and the selection of participants will take into account the gender-balance.

APPLY NOW

Please complete the application form online here:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KDHHRP2

Successful candidates will be contacted by the EFJ.

Deadline: 1 November 2020

About the Trainer

David Bevan, Operations Director of Cadre Consultants 

David Bevan is the Operations Director of Cadre Consultants, a media specific risk consultancy company. He has spent 30 years managing risk and safety issues in hazardous environments with 18 years dedicated specifically to media field safety. Over this time, he has worked for various international media organisations (i.e. CNN, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, etc.) and freelance federations having worked in both conflict and non-conflict environments. He has also trained 6,000 freelance and staff journalists in safety and risk management protocol. He is the author of three media safety booklets written in the last seven years.